Liberty and the News

by Walter Lippmann, Ronald Steel (Foreword), Sidney Blumenthal (Afterword)

Liberty and the News is Walter Lippman's classic account of how the press threatens democracy whenever it has an agenda other than the free flow of ideas. Arguing that there is a necessary connection between liberty and truth, Lippman excoriates the press, claiming that it exists primarily for its own purposes and agendas and only incidentally to promote the honest interplay of facts and ideas. In response, Lippman sought to imagine a better way of cultivating the news.

A brilliant essay on a persistent problem of American democracy, Liberty and the News is still powerfully relevant despite the development of countless news sources unimagined when Lippman first published it in 1920. The problems he identifies--the self-importance of the press, the corrosion of rumors and innuendo, and the spinning of the news by political powers--are still with us, and they still threaten liberty. By focusing on the direct and necessary connection between liberty and truth, Lippmann's work helps to clarify one of the most pressing predicaments of American democracy today.

Genres: Politics, Journalism, Nonfiction, History, Sociology

120 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Walter Lippmann was an American intellectual, writer, reporter, and political commentator who gained notoriety for being among the first to introduce the concept of Cold War. Lippmann was twice awarded (1958 and 1962) a Pulitzer Prize for his syndicated newspaper column, "Today and Tomorrow."

Reviews

[Jennifer · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely a book that requires concentration and effort, but Lippmann makes some very valid points that are even more relevant today than they were when he wrote it in the 1920s. I found it a bit depressing because I don't see any positive change happening any time in the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, the news has become an entertainment/money-making business instead of an information business. Lippmann makes some great points about how crucial it is in a democracy for the news to actually be facts, not opinions or "alternative facts."

If you have any interest in journalism, propaganda, and politics, you may find this book enlightening! I did.

[Judy Monchuk · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fresh from reading David Frum’s Trumpocracy, it seemed like a good time to examine Walter Lippmann’s essays looking at journalism, propaganda and their impact on democracy. Lippmann, co-founder of The New Republic and a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist, wrote these in the wake of WWI, outraged by wartime misinformation fed to the public. Lippmann called out newspapers (it was only newspaper readers at the time) for failing to provide readers with facts, preferring to dispense government-approved information/propaganda or material tailored to the media bias/perspective preferred by the publishers of the day. He derides the lack of media objectivity and its impact on truth and liberty. But he also questions the desire and ability of the public to make the effort to seek out and demand facts, to critically examine information.

Anything sound familiar?

This tiny tome, only 94 pages long, provides a wealth of material worth considering. Many of Lippmann’s observations are incredibly relevant a century later: addressing stark media bias, the fear/mistrust of immigrants and increasing nationalist sentiments around the globe. It would be easy to distil this as an attack on all newspapers/media, or the so-called fake news that certain 2018 leaders have dubbed any information that disagrees with the message they want to put forward. But it’s not that simple.

Lippmann assumed post WWI that people were passive and must be protected from propaganda. “The quack, the charlatan, the jingo and the terrorist can flourish only when the audience is deprived of independent access to information,” wrote Lippmann. But today, a significant portion of the public chooses information sources that play to their prejudices and even a foreign state can choose to play upon those biases to sway public opinion and elections. And as Lippmann noted, “the real enemy is ignorance, from which all of us, conservative, liberal or revolutionary, suffer.”

This collection of essays, published by Princeton University Press in 2008, includes an afterword examining the behavior of the media and the George W Bush administration in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. At that time, any media voice that raised skepticism of the evidence supporting war on Iraq and Saddam Hussein was derided as unpatriotic and largely silenced when Bush officials including Vice President Dick Cheney complained to the CEOs of major media corporations. I remember speaking with journalists from major US media organizations who said at the time, they couldn’t question or push back against the administration’s moves. I expect the next edition will also include an analysis of how journalism has covered the Trump administration and how democracy has evolved. Or survived.

[Jwt Jan50 · Rating 5 out of 5]

58 pages. Almost everyone folded over and marked for quotations. Not as important as the 'Sermon on the Mount' but quite well written. Given human nature, his solution is a bit of wishful thinking but, "But I am equally convinced that democracy will degenerate into this dictatorship either of the Right or of the Left, if it does not become genuinely self-governing. That means, in terms of public opinion, a resumption of that contact between beliefs and realities which we have been losing steadily since the small-town democracy was absorbed into the Great Society."

[Laurie Elliot · Rating 5 out of 5]

Facts should trump opinions

"We cannot fight the untruth which envelops us by parading our opinions. We can do if only by reporting the facts, and we do not deserve to win if the facts are against us."

[Usacnnnews · Rating 5 out of 5]

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[Billy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Written just after WWI, the text will be surprisingly fresh to some in light of today's controversies over 'fake' news and editorial bias. This tome is actually two essays: the first that gives the title to the overall book and then 'A Test of the News', more of an investigation of the New York Times' reporting of the Russian Revolution and subsequent Allied intervention and civil war.

The first essay sees Lippmann lambasting news reporting for its numerous failings, especially for thinking that its primary responsibility was to guide society and not provide accurate information. Sounds familiar, no? Unfortunately, the essay falls short of providing any meaningful solution, and Lippmann doesn't even seem to take into consideration the possibility that people will eventually simply disregard the news.

'A Test of the News' is the more interesting of the two in my mind, probably because it deals with the tangible reality of what was in the headlines compared to what actually happened. Lippmann shows quite convincingly how the news was slanted by the paper's editorial bias in its choice of emphasis of headlines and placement of articles. Most telling was a comparison of opinions on the crucial question of whether Russia would stay in the war (and hence keep German troops from redeploying to the Western front). The Times loudly trumpeted 'highly placed' sources insisting that Russia was fully committed to the fight, but buried an interview with Leon Trotsky (the Trotsky) who stated that the Russians were played out after so many military defeats. The essay goes on to show numerous other instances of the paper having a preference for official communiques as opposed to having reporters actually go do some real reporting. Again, sounds familiar, no?

In the end, though, Lippmann never addresses issues like how is a reporter supposed to be qualified to report on things like military campaigns and diplomatic conferences and why don't other newspapers report on other newspaper's failings. All in all, mildly interesting but by this point in time a century later, we already know it's fake news.

[Kate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walter Lippman's Liberty and the News is a critical book in understanding how the press can endanger our freedom. Lippman contends that there is a strong relationship between our freedom and the truth being reported in the media. The historical context of this book is that Lippman wrote it after the end of World War I. Lippman condemned all the propaganda and the distortions of the truth reported by the media. The book is divided into three essays: Journalism and the Higher Law, What Modern Liberty Means, and Liberty and the News. Lippman was a brilliant man, and recipient of the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

[Justinmmoffitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s three chapters of quotable insights and philosophy. Although Lippmann later recounts this work, in the modern age it remains relevant. The thesis is pretty simple: The concept of liberty is not just a freedom from a restriction of choices but the awakening of the mind from ignorance. Good shit.

[Douglas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite relevant for looking at our media today, even though Lippmann wrote it almost a hundred years ago. He points to the media's inclination to be a lapdog to vested and powerful interests, and he mourns the absence of independent, non-ideological journalism.

[محمد الهاشمي · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Lippman's masterpiece on Freedom of Press and Liberty issues surrounding news industry. Never ever gets old.

[Brian]

A classic in the mass comm field.